Paul taught the Thessalonians and Titus to watch and look for the glorious appearing of Christ. To Titus, Paul called it the "blessed hope." Was Christ to appear 2,000 years later then? What hope is that? The return of Christ (His parousia) was a strong theme in many of the NT books and letters. It was each Christian's hope to witness Christ return to punish Jerusalem and those who had been inflecting persecution on the Church.
So, why then, just a few decades later, doesn't early Christian writer, Ignatius, breath a word about Christ returning as a future event he is looking for? Instead, he looks forward to death.
"...trusting through your prayers to be permitted to fight with beasts at Rome, that so by martyrdom I may indeed become the disciple of Him "who gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God," [ye hastened to see me ]. - Ignatius of Antioch Letter to the Ephesians 105-115 AD.
What happened? The return of Christ was all the disciples could talk about, yet less than 80 years later, nobody in the Church is talking about it. Then in his letter to the Magnesians, Ignatius records that Christ had returned and resurrected the prophets. He speaks of Christ's return and resurrection in the past tense:
CHAPTER 9
9:1 If then those who had walked in ancient practices attained unto newness of hope, no longer observing sabbaths but fashioning their lives after the Lord's day, on which our life also arose through Him and through His death which some men deny -- a mystery whereby we attained unto belief, and for this cause we endure patiently, that we may be found disciples of Jesus Christ our only teacher -- 9:2 if this be so, how shall we be able to live apart from Him? seeing that even the prophets, being His disciples, were expecting Him as their teacher through the Spirit. And for this cause He whom they rightly awaited, when He came, raised them from the dead.
GAME, SET, MATCH!!